The Role of Video Surveillance in the Workplace

Protecting your employees is just as important as protecting your business. Security cameras should be mounted at entrances, exits, and in parking lots to create a safer environment for your employees. Not only will they feel more at ease walking to their cars after dark, but this security tactic also prevents vehicle break-ins, vandalism, and other petty crime activity around your office or store. Security cameras can do much more for your business than catch criminals. Video surveillance and business security systems are now used for everything from measuring efficiency, to data security, to compliance with securities laws. Often in a workers compensation or personal injury claim, the recorded video of the incident can be the deciding factor.

More Than Half of Employers Use Video Surveillance

A 2005 survey by the American Management Association showed that more than half of the employers who responded use video surveillance at work to counter theft, violence, or sabotage. And 16% of the employers surveyed used video surveillance to monitor employee performance.The growth in employer surveillance systems is continuing to rise. While the laws of workplace privacy do vary between states.

State Laws on Workplace Privacy

Privacy is a cherished value for most of us, and state legislators know it. Most states have passed at least some privacy-related laws. Many of these laws are intended to protect consumers by, for example, limiting the ways companies may use personal information or requiring businesses to maintain the confidentiality of medical information or Social Security numbers.

Some states have also passed laws that deal with workplace privacy, including the use of cameras and video equipment. In California, for example, it’s a crime to install a surveillance mirror (one that can be seen through from only one side and looks like a mirror on the other) in a restroom, shower, fitting room, or locker room. In Connecticut, employers may not operate surveillance equipment in areas designed for employee rest or comfort, such as restrooms, locker rooms, or employee lounges.

Privacy for Certain Employee Activities

Even if your state hasn’t passed laws that specifically protect workplace privacy, you almost certainly can’t be taped or filmed while doing certain things at work, such as using the restroom or changing clothes.

If there’s no state law that specifically allows or prohibits surveillance, courts determine whether an employee’s privacy has been violated by looking at two competing interests: the employer’s need to conduct surveillance and the employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy.